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Sochi

Travel Guide Europe Russia Southern Russia Sochi

Introduction

Sochi - Sanatorium

Sochi is a town located on the Black Sea in the Krasnodar Krai region in Southern Russia, not far north from Georgia's territory Abkhazia. It was once a popular summer resort among Russians, and you will still find many sanatoriums in the area.

Sochi will host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, which is a bit weird when you consider that the city has a subtropical climate and the average temperature in February - when the games will be held - is just below 10 °C during the day. It will be a strange sight to see speed skaters relax under a palm tree after their race.

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Sights and Activities

Michael Archangel Cathedral
Archangel Column
The Railway Terminal Station
Sochi Art Museum
Arboretum (botanical gardens)

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Events and Festivals

2014 Winter Olympics Games

Sochi will host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, which will be held from February 7 to February 23. It will be the first time that the Winter Olympics will be held in Russia. The indoor events will take place in Sochi, on the shores on the Black Sea. The outdoor events will take place about 50 kilometres to the east, in Krasnaya Polyan in the Caucasus mountains.

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Getting There

Sochi - Promenade

By Plane

The main airport is to the south of Sochi, in Adler: Sochi International Airport (AER). For the Olympics Games it will be expanded, and connections will be built with Sochi, and Krasnaya Polyana. There are connections to many Russian cities, including Moscow, Novosibirsk, Kazan, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and even Yakutsk, as well as international connections to Kutaisi, Batumi (both in Georga), Tashkent, Istanbul, Frankfurt, Yerevan, Vienna, Gyumri (Armenia), Cologne/Bonn, Hanover, Munich, Khujand, Dushanbe (both in Tajikistan) and Tbilisi.

By Boat

Sochi can be reached over the Black Sea from a couple of places including Trabzon in Turkey, Yalta and Batumi in Georgia. For more information check the Seaport Sochi website.

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Sleep

Property	Address	Type	Popularity
Mountain SKIt Hostel	Achishhovskaya str. 8 Krasnaya Polyana	Hostel	78
Mini-hotel Aledo	ul. Bitxa 41/28 A	HOTEL	-

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Keep Connected

Phone

Post

Russian Post is the national postal service of Russia. It's English version is currently under construction, but mainly involves the track&trace system. The domestic post is reasonably reliable, and sending international mail is fairly reliable but slow, taking at least a few weeks to European countries, longer to the USA or Australia for example. The delivery of mail sent from abroad to Russia is highly unreliable, and people or companies tend to use foreign adresses, from where a private carrier sends it to Russia. Alternatives like poste restante are non-existent with Russian Post. Most cities and large towns in Russia have a Central Post Office (Glavpochtamt), which also sells stamps and envelopes, and usually has fax services and Internet availability, though the latter mostly not in smaller places. Also, many hotels have postal services, including mail boxes. Post offices tend to keep long hours, usually from 8:00am or 9:00am until 8:00pm or 9:00pm Monday to Friday, and closing earlier during weekends. The main central post offices in the biggest cities keep even longer hours. For sending parcels, you can also try services by DHL Russia and FedEx Russia. For all mail you can use the regular alphabet, though maybe include the country's name in Cyrillic. For sending post to Russia (or trying to receive it) note that addresses should be in reverse order: Russia, postal code, city, street address, name.